Whew - the eating fest is winding down

We just ate our way through the week-end and made it out at the other end intact, although bursting at the seams.

Two of my three brothers were in town - Doug and Karen, from Ontario (not too far from Toronto) who comes in at holiday time, and Ron from British Columbia who has to move on to Ottawa (Canada's capital and about two hours from Montreal)) today for a work-related conference.

Saturday we skipped taiko, which we never do, but we did have cleaning and cooking to do since we were having everyone over for supper that night. I felt bad about missing it, but we had a really good practice on Friday night, so it's all good.

We made kari-raisu (curry rice), a mild Japanese style curry, sushi, gyoza (pan-fried dumplings) and salad. While rolling the makizushi, Ebi the cat was harrassing me for nori, or seaweed, which he loves. My mom would always give him some, so as soon as he hears it crinkle, he's howling. He also tries to pull it down off the sushi mat.

Here, he is clearly taking on the roll of "quality control," checking to see if I did a decent job rolling the sushi.

Also made manju, the little red bean paste filled dessert. We also had biscotti and Italian cookies and a lovely & refreshing lemon cake - all from our cousin Gerry's bakery (one of our Italian cousins) as well as French pastries - lots of great places in Montreal for good pastry.

Did I ever tell you that our family loves dessert?

The last time my brother Ron from BC was here, was when my mom died in 2006, so it was nice just to be together, hang out and laugh. I'm always amazed at how loud we can be when we are all together. Lots of cackling and roaring.

Yesterday we went out for lunch with some of my dad's side of the family, which we hadn't done in too long. Before that, we went to the cemetary to see my parents and grandparents, and because of the crazy amounts of snow we've had, we could just see the top of the plot marker poking out from the snow. Because of the recent cold temperature, the 3 feet of snow was solid enough that we could actually get on top of if and walk out to the grave without sinking in.

Here Ron and JF are trying to dig out the Christmas wreath before digging about 2 inches and reaching solid ice.

We went out for a huge Chinese meal (good place even though it wasn't in Chinatown) and then back to my aunt and uncle's for coffee and dessert. I'll have to wait for my brother to send me his group picture (yay, for camera timers) and I'll post it here. For now, here's one of the four siblings together. From the left, that's Ron, me, Pats and Doug:

Family gatherings remind me how lucky we are.

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Did you notice - I now have three columns in my blog, and I'm proud to say I did all by myself. Wanted to throw myself off the balcony a few times, but I did it and I am thrilled! And, it took me awhile, but embarrassingly, you can finally click on my photos and see them in full size. Oh the woes of html...